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Unsung Hero: Surprising Facts About a Medal of Honor Recipient Who Fought Franco, Hirohito, and Hitler

Khalid Elhassan March 17, 2025 13 min

Black - Edward Allen Carter Jr., and the Medal of Honor he earned but did not receive during his lifetime — Edward Allen Carter Jr., and the Medal of Honor he earned but did not receive during his lifetime. Pinterest

11. Running Away From Home as a Teenager to Fight Japanese Militarism

Japanese soldiers on the Great Wall of China, 1932. World War II Database

In 1932, Japan was reeling from the Great Depression. As countries around the world resorted to high tariffs and other trade restrictions to protect their native industries, Japan’s export based economy was hit hard. So the Japanese cast their eyes on the teeming millions of nearby China, and saw in them the perfect captive market – provided they could, literally, capture it. Diplomacy failed to convince China to adopt trade policies highly favorable to Japan, so the Japanese resorted to arms. In 1932, a red flag operation was staged, Japan falsely claimed it had been victimized by Chinese aggression, and launched a military intervention known as The Shanghai Incident. That was how Carter got his first taste of combat. When he was fifteen-years-old, he ran away from home and joined the Nationalist Chinese forces as they fought to beat off Japanese aggression.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.